A Child's Wish
by Dark Metal Queen
Summary: One Shot. Emma turns seven years old and only has one wish, a family. This birthday will be the first of many escapes but nothing compares to her first one.


**A Child's Wish**

**Author's Note: There's a serious lack of stories of Emma as a child on here so I came up with my own. Inspration for this came from Eva by Nightwish. I'm not sure if I'll do one for I Walk Alone by Tarja. I don't own Once Upon a Time. Comments are encouraged.**

* * *

6:30 am and it was Emma Swan's birthday. Today she was officially seven years old but like every birthday she could remember she was stuck in an orphanage. Every foster family she was ever placed in she was returned to the orphanage in about a month. With every birthday that passed for young Emma she always had one wish and it was the same every year. She wished with all her might on a birthday candle for a family, a real family. At seven she had given up hope that her real parents would come and get her, so by now a family, any family as long as it was a good one, would be a dream come true for her.

The woman in charge of the orphanage came into the bedroom which Emma shared with eleven other children. Emma didn't know the woman's first name, the woman was addressed by last name only. Her last name was Anson. The woman was nice and each year on her birthday she would let Emma have a day off from lessons and daily chores. And on every birthday, like with all the other young children, the woman would buy a cupcake from the bakery and a single candle so she could make wish. As mentioned before Emma always made the same wish but this year she really wanted a family, a permanent family so she never had to come back here. Anson might have been nice but she would never be family and the orphanage would never feel like home.

Anyway when Anson came in she asked Emma if she wanted to play any games or if she wanted to go outside for a walk. Emma declined and Anson shut the door behind her as she left the bedroom. All Emma wanted to do the entire day was sleep. Emma reached at the end of her small bed for her blanket. It was a white knitted blanket lined in lavender, her name was stitched at the bottom of the blanket in elegant capitol letters. She wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and brought a corner of it to her nose to inhale its scent. Despite the blanket being seven years old it was still clean and had the original smell it had when she wrapped in it as a baby. The old smell smelled almost magical, that if it could talk it would tell of its own wonderful tale.

"Whoever made me this must have loved me," Emma whispered, "Why would they leave me though?"

Emma slowly drifted off to sleep and her dreams were filled with strange stories and memories she wasn't sure really happened or not. In one dream she dreamed of a heroic, handsome man. The man could have been a prince in a fairytale and in her dream he was swinging a sword fighting off scary knights. He was doing this with one hand and in his other arm was a small baby, Emma thought that it might have been her since it was wrapped in her blanket, she doubted it though. The dream was fuzzy and white around the edges, like a long lost memory that was not quite forgotten. The fuzzy haze was the same with the next dream that came.

With this dream she saw a woman in pain, it seemed like she had just given birth. The woman had come to the terrible decision to give the baby up in order to keep it same. Once again Emma doubted it was her. After this dream Emma dreamed a few more short dreams and them she dreamed of nothing at all.

Several hours later at around seven Anson came into the bedroom again and woke Emma up. Emma neatly folded her blanket and placed it back at the foot of the bed. Anson took Emma's small hand in her own and left the bedroon. She giggled a little and Emma asked what was so funny.

"You sure are attached to that old blanket dear. I don't think I've ever seen you without it."

"I love that blanket. Its the only thing I have that's never left me." Emma changes the subject, "What kind of cupcake did you get me?"

"Vanillia and the candle has a star on the top."

"Yummy."

The dining room they arrived in the rundown. The corners will filled with dusty cobwebs from where the other children didn't clean. The long wooden table was rotten and filled with holes but it all was familiar and Emma's face lit up when she saw her cupcake. She ran and sat on the chair in front of it. Anson came up behind Emma with a match and lit the star candle. She didn't mind that no one bothered to sing Happy Birthday. How can any birthday be happy in a rundown place like this orphanage? Anson told Emma to make a wish and blow out the candle.

_"I wish...I wish...I wish, wish, wish,"_ Emma thought. The other children were getting impatient, they didn't want to celebrate a seven year old girl's birthday, _"I wish for a family. A family with good people who love me and will love me forever and ever. Please. Please."_

Emma blew out the candle in one breath, which wasn't very hard to do, and pulled out the candle from the cupcake and licked the frosting off the candle. Just as she was about to take the first bite of her treat a mean girl who had been there too long, sneered at Emma. The mean girl placed her hands on her hips and took a defensive pose with one leg bent out and the other straight.

"Let me guess, you wished for the same thing," the mean girl said, "When will you get it through your head? You won't get a family. None of us will get a family because no one want us. Just like no one wants you."

Tears came to Emma's eyes and began to fall down her face. The salty tears stung her lips and reddened her cheeks. She took her cupcake and her candle, which still had some frosting on it, and ran upstairs to the bedroom. The mean girl felt no remorse even though she was threatened with a beating from one of the other volunteer workers. In the bedroom Emma cried into her pillow. She was angry at the girl and didn't want to stay in that place any longer, so she came up with a plan. Emma got on her hands and knees on the hard wooden floor. She reached under the bed for her suitcase. The suitcase had a couple of clothes in it. Emma hugged her blanket, folded it up again and placed with her other things in the suitcase. She sat on her bed and finished her cupcake and tossed the candle in the suitcase as well. Emma didn't know why but there was something comforting about this candle.

It was just an ordinary candle. There was nothing special about it. All it was, was a blue star on the candle stick but it was like the blue star was trying to remind her of something, of some long long ago, something that could only be unlocked by the pure innocence of a child's heart.

"I'm not staying here anymore. I don't care where I'm going but I'm not staying here. Maybe can find my real family," Emma said as she wiped the tears away from her eyes.

Late at night was when Emma decided to set her plan into motion. It was nine at night when she decided to leave. Since it was September it was still light out, sky was even a light orange mixed with pink. Emma took it as a sign that it was the right night to runaway. She didn't know where to go but she wouldn't stop until she got her answers. Anywhere was better than her past.

"Mom. Dad. I'm coming to find you," Emma said at last and headed off down the road and into the sunset.

* * *

**The End **


End file.
